Unit 1: Science of Psychology

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Unit 1 Science of Psychology

• Essential Task 1-5
• Describe descriptive research studies taking into
  account random sampling, wording-effect and
  applicable biases.

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Careers
We are here
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Essential Task 1-5
Outline

• Describe descriptive research studies
• Naturalistic Observation
• Observer Bias
• Can not replicate or generalize
• Case Studies
• Can not replicate or generalize
• Surveys
• taking into account random sampling,
• Wording-effect
• Social Desirability Bias
• Non-response Bias

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(No Transcript)
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3 Types of Descriptive Research

1. Naturalistic Observation
2. Survey
3. Case Studies

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Descriptive Research DESCRIBES
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Naturalistic Observation

• What is it? A descriptive research method
  involving the systematic study of animal or human
  behavior in natural settings rather than the
  laboratory
• Huh? Researcher describes the behavior of the
  human or animal in their natural settings

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Naturalistic Observation

• Strengths
• The behavior is more natural than if they were in
  the lab
• Weaknesses
• Can not replicate. Replication involves the
  process of repeating a study using the same
  methods, different subjects, and different
  experimenters. If you cant replicate you cant
  retest the results or apply them to new
  situations to see just how generalizable it is.
• Can not generalize (apply them to new situations)
  your findings.
• Observer bias - occurs when the observers (or
  researcher team) know the goals of the study or
  the hypotheses and allow this knowledge to
  influence their observations during the study

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Naturalistic Observations
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Case Studies

• What is it? Study of a single individual or just
  a few individuals in order to describe their
  situation.
• Purpose? Take advantage of situation that you
  can not replicate (make happen again)
• How? Gather as much evidence as you can
  Observation, scores on psychological tests,
  interviews, medical records etc.

Outline
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Case Studies

• Strengths
• Takes advantage of nonreplicable situations
• You get a lot of in-depth understanding
• Weaknesses
• Observer bias is a problem
• Can not generalize (apply your findings to other
  individuals or groups)
• Can not replicate

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Two most famous case studies in psychology
Genie
Phineas Gage
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The Lost Children of Rockdale County

• Case Study of a syphilis epidemic at a high
  school in an affluent suburb of Atlanta

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Survey

• What is it? Descriptive research technique in
  which questionnaires or interviews are
  administered to a selected group of people.
• Huh? To describe a large group of people you ask
  them carefully worded questions.

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Survey
Hingham High School

• Strengths
• You can generate a lot of information for a
  fairly low cost
• Overcomes the false consensus effect
• If you randomly sampled then you can generalize
  your findings to the population from which you
  sampled.

Weymouth High School
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Survey

• Weaknesses
• Wording Effect
• Wording can change the results of a survey.
• Should cigarette ads be allowed on television?
• Should cigarette ads be forbid on television?
• Social Desirability Effect
• If directly asked about a sensitive subject, we
  may alter our answer to what we think is socially
  acceptable.

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The root of the problem is that in real life,
all scientists ever observe are samples.  And, in
real life, all they want to know about is
populations Nancy Darling, Ph.D.
Sampling from a population
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Random Sampling

• Sampling in which each potential population
  member has an equal chance of being surveyed.
• Cant just pull names from a hat
• Alphabetical list and pick every 10th name.

Outline
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Non-response Bias

• Women and Love study done by Shere Hite 1974
• 98 Dissatisfied by their Marriage
• 75 Extramarital Affairs
• But to all of those who were mailed surveys only
  4 responded.

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When randomly sampled

• 93 of women are satisfied in their marriages
• Only 7 had affairs

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Comparison
Research Method Advantages Limitations
Naturalistic Observation More accurate than reports after the fact Behavior is more natural Observer can alter behavior Observer Bias Not generalizable
Case Studies Depth Takes advantage of circumstances that can not be replicated Not generalizable Time consuming and expensive Observational Bias
Surveys Immense amount of data Quick and inexpensive Generalizable Replicable Poor sampling can skew results Wording Effect Social Desirability Bias